Misled
by Nitrowugs
Summary: What if Dawn isn't who, or what, everyone thinks she is? How is Wolfram and Hart involved and how does it impact the members of Angel Investigations? Story is not particularly friendly for the Scoobies or potentials. AU.
1. Hank

Misled

Author: Nitrowugs

Rating: PG

Pairings: None early, B/A ending

Feedback: Please. Constructive criticism is always welcomed and appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything associated with BtVS and AtS and no infringement is intended.

Distribution: Please ask and let me know where it's going.

Started: 07/15/2012

Completed: 08/25/2012

Summary: What if Dawn isn't who, or what, everyone thinks she is? How is Wolfram and Hart involved and how does it impact the members of Angel Investigations?

A/N1: For the most part BtVS happened up to 'Empty Places' in season 7. Once Buffy is asked to leave the house, the story goes AU; also I added Maggie Walsh becoming chummy with Wolfram and Hart. AtS happened up thru 'Reunions' in season 2, everything else is AU so there is no Cordelia as a higher being, no Fred and no Connor. I fudged some of the time lines between BtVS and AtS to make events line up.

A/N2: Okay, I know I said that 'The Last Living Slayer' was the last of my 'Empty Places' therapy, but I just had to write this one. It doesn't really revolve around that episode, but the events are mentioned briefly.

A/N3: Thoughts are in single quotes ('').

Chapter 1 – Hank

A/N: Activities in this chapter happened four years prior to 'Empty Places'.

Part 1

Hank Summers found out by accident that Wolfram and Hart had planned to kill Buffy, that they had created a package designated for Buffy whose contents were laced with a lethal poison and she would be dead minutes after she opened it, and that the package had been delivered to Christopher and LeeAnn Lelands, the couple that leased his house in Los Angeles.

Hank knew that he was doomed for crossing the law firm and this would be his last effort to help Buffy. He had worked for Wolfram and Hart for years and he knew how they operated, but there was no way he could just sit back and let them murder his daughter.

He was attending a scholarship fundraiser for local LA youths interested in becoming lawyers, his last required function before returning to his regular position in Spain, when he overheard a conversation that chilled him to the bone.

Lindsey MacDonald, one of the local Wolfram and Hart attorneys, was speaking to someone about a package that was supposed to be delivered.

"Don't worry, Mr. MacDonald, I delivered the package to the Lelands myself. Buffy Summers will be dead within minutes after she opens it. No human could breathe that stuff and live." The speaker, whose voice Hank did not recognize, gave a raspy sounding laugh. "Fortunately for me, I don't have to breathe."

"Keep your voice down." MacDonald's voice was cold and demeaning. "Do you want everyone to hear you? Hank Summers works for us; I don't know where he is right now, but he was required to attend this function. He could be anywhere."

Hank quickly moved away from the two speakers, but not before he was spotted by Lilah Morgan, one of MacDonald's associates.

When he looked into Lilah's face, he knew that he was in trouble.

Shaken to the core of his very being by what he had overheard, Hank left the function early and returned to his office. While the nighttime cleaning crew was still making its rounds, he searched the company's records looking for anything related to Buffy Summers.

The amount of data returned from Hank's first search was almost overwhelming. He already knew that the company kept data on all family members and friends of its employees, but this was far more than he expected to find.

He kept narrowing the search until he found what he was looking for – plans to kill the slayer Buffy Summers, but more important than that, perhaps, were the reasons. There was only one: to eliminate her influence on the vampire named Angel/Angelus, The Scourge of Europe.

Hank wanted to know more about this vampire, but he did not have time. He saw how his unsuspecting tenants, the Lelands, had been involved in the plot without their knowledge. He transmitted all of the information to his personal computer in his hotel room and eliminated all evidence of his searches from his work computer. The last action was a precaution, in case someone went looking.

Part 2

Back at his hotel Hank studied the information he had retrieved from Wolfram and Hart regarding Buffy. It was extremely detailed, and extremely alarming.

The next morning the first thing he had to do was to get the package from the Lelands that was intended for Buffy. Based on the description of the package that he found, he created a replacement package and headed for his house that he had leased to the Lelands.

He found them to be cordial and agreeable to exchanging the package. Hank considered asking them not to report the exchange to Lindsey MacDonald, but thought better of the idea. It was his plan to contact Buffy before he left the country again, but just in case he couldn't, he had a backup plan.

Hank changed his travel plans by delaying them for one day so that he could accomplish all that he intended. He knew that if he didn't do all he could to protect his daughter now, he probably would not get another chance. He had seen the look on Lilah Morgan's face last night and he knew very well what she was capable of.

Unknown to Hank, Lilah had him followed back to the office the previous night.

She didn't know what he had overheard, but after receiving a call from the man she had following him, she knew that if it was significant enough to send him scurrying back to the office at one o'clock in the morning on the night before he was to return to Spain, it was significant enough for her to be concerned.

Something was up. She needed to have a talk with Lindsey right away; this could not wait until morning.

By noon the following day Hank had completed all except two of the tasks he had planned. All that was left to do was to try again to contact Buffy and to visit his vault at the bank. He did not want to alarm Joyce unless absolutely necessary. He had not been feeling well since breakfast and now he knew something was very wrong.

A visit to the local hospital emergency room revealed more than he wanted to know. The doctor at the emergency room wanted to admit Hank right away, but Hank refused. According to the doctor, his life depended on it. Hank still refused. He only had a little time left and there was one more thing he had to do.

Hank made one last trip to his bank. A limousine was waiting for him when he exited the bank and the driver, with what little force was needed, escorted him to the vehicle and helped him in. It came as no surprise to him when he looked up and saw Lilah and Lindsey waiting for him in the limo.

Hank's last thoughts were that he had done all he could to protect Buffy and he sent a quick prayer to whatever deity was listening asking for their protection for his daughter.


	2. Walsh and Wolfram & Hart Collaborate

Misled

Chapter 2 - Maggie Walsh and Wolfram & Hart Collaborate

A/N: The following events happened 2½ years prior to 'Empty Places'.

Part 1

Maggie Walsh was in her office documenting her first meeting with the slayer, Buffy Summers, one of her first year Psychology students. She typed into her computer -

"I found her to be respectful, but not timid, alert and ever on guard, ready for anything; she had an answer for every question asked and a valid defense (or offense) for any criticism whether blatant or perceived.

"The characteristics she displayed in my office are what I would expect of a slayer, however, most have not been exhibited in my classroom, mainly because she is usually half asleep. Now I know why – she's up every night until dawn slaying HSTs.

"While there is much that can be learned from this girl that will be invaluable in our work, she is undisciplined as a soldier and, in my opinion, remains a wild card. That being said, I do, however, recommend that we invite her to join the Initiative. She will be watched at all times and if I perceive that she is becoming a threat in any way, she will be eliminated immediately."

It did not take Maggie long to tire of the slayer. She asked questions incessantly; she countered orders, because according to her, "As a slayer, I will not do that," and worst of all, her influence over the Initiative's prized prototype, Riley Finn, was almost absolute. He would do anything she asked him to do and he was ready to follow her anywhere.

The slayer's presence could no longer be tolerated.

As she pondered the right approach to eliminating the slayer, the phone on her desk rang. She could not have been more surprised when she answered the phone. Representatives from the law offices of Wolfram and Hart in Los Angeles wanted to meet with her. She was so shocked she almost dropped the phone.

Maggie took a deep calming breath before she answered the caller. She would be happy to meet with their representatives. All they told her about the purpose of the meeting was that it would be beneficial to both Wolfram & Hart and the Initiative. At that Maggie's interest was definitely peaked. How did a law firm know about the existence of the Initiative? A meeting was scheduled for the following week and Maggie would have to make the two-hour drive down to LA.

Part 2

The meeting went well. Maggie Walsh had been suspicious at first when she got the request for a meeting from such a prestigious law firm as Wolfram and Hart of Los Angeles.

As the meeting got underway with the company's representatives, Lilah Morgan and Lindsey MacDonald, whom she found to be not only helpful, but charming and personable, she realized that she had a common foe with these people and that made the meeting more than worthwhile. They could help each other in solving some of their problems without much effort from either side and without anyone else knowing what was going on. An agreement between her and the law firm would prove to be mutually beneficial indeed.

She had been more than skeptical at first when she heard what the lawyers had to say about Buffy Summers and her liaison with a local vampire. Miss Summers was a vampire slayer, yes, but for her to actually consort with HSTs was … Maggie couldn't find the words to describe just how wrong that was.

'What was it that Riley had called her, Oh yes, "the truest soul I've ever known". The truest soul indeed, a vampire slayer who, not only doesn't kill vampires, she sleeps with them.' She had been shocked beyond words as she watched a portion of a video of Miss Summers and what appeared to be a sick vampire in which she seemingly forced him to drink from her.

"I must say, Miss Summers is indeed full of surprises," she told her new friends. "I wonder how Riley will react when he sees the real Buffy Summers."

The three of them, Lilah, Lindsey and Maggie, spent hours brainstorming to determine the best approach to eliminate what they perceived to be unacceptable threats to their way of life and to themselves personally. Actually what it boiled down to was the fact that they wanted to eliminate or seriously reduce the influence of Angel, the ensouled vampire, and Buffy Summers, the vampire slayer.

Wolfram and Hart needed to make sure that the slayer stayed away from Angel after seeing the effects that the forgotten day had on him and Maggie wanted to completely remove Buffy Summers' influence on Riley Finn.

They determined that killing the two targets outright would accomplish their desired goal, but it would also bring too much heat down upon themselves, from the Senior Partners in the lawyers' case and from the Watchers' Council and subsequently the US government in Walsh's case. Neither could afford the consequences associated with pissed off higher ups.

That being decided then, their next option was to neutralize their targets without actually killing them or to kill them in a way that did not point back to themselves. Any plans currently in place would remain in place, but going forward they would have to be extremely careful.

Part 3

First they explored options for neutralizing Angel. For example, they could cause him to return to Sunnydale where he would, without a doubt, reunite with the slayer, since that is what he desired above all else. This option was rejected right away; while it would assure that Buffy would no longer be in Riley's life, it would also assure that with the influence of the slayer, Angel would fight on the side of good when the apocalypse came; that was certainly not acceptable to the Senior Partners, that is why they had maneuvered things to influence him to leave Sunnydale in the first place.

"What is his second greatest desire?" Walsh asked.

The answer to that question was simple. Angel wanted to be human, to have his soul bound so that it can never be removed again and he wanted a family. The first two were not options from the lawyers' perspective.

"That being the case then, why not bind his soul with a loophole, he would not be aware of the loophole, of course, and give him the family that he wants; give him something special, something that he always thought he'd never have."

"Like what?" Lindsey wanted to know.

Walsh smiled deviously. "Like a child perhaps."

Lindsey and Lilah looked at each other. One could almost see the wheels turning within their heads. Identical wicked grins touched their faces as they spoke as one. "Darla."

"I'll take care of getting Darla back," Lilah told Lindsey; "you just be prepared to control her once she is lucid again. To accomplish this process it will take quite some time and some very powerful magics. We can't afford to screw this up.

"We still have the slayer's egg that Angel fertilized on the day that we turned back, we'll simply implant that into Darla."

When Walsh asked for an explanation, she was given a glimpse of the power that Wolfram and Hart controlled. If the Senior Partners could wipe out a whole day, what were they really capable of and how had they accomplished capturing Miss Summers' egg without her knowledge?

"The day was actually turned back by the Oracles. We replaced them with our own cyborg agents. These agents still have the memories of the original Oracles, that is how they knew about the forgotten day and how we were informed. As for Miss Summers' egg, we simply picked her up one night while she was on patrol, removed her fertilized egg, erased the procedure from her memory and returned her to Sunnydale, that's all." Lilah spoke as if that should be the most obvious thing in the world.

The committee of three detailed everything to the nth degree and then documented their decisions regarding how they would handle Angel.

They would bring Darla, Angel's sire, back human expecting full well that Darla would finagle her way into Angel's bed, regardless of how he felt about the slayer.

They would implant the slayer's fertilized egg into Darla and she would fulfill one of her childe's greatest desires; she would give him a human child, something no other vampire has ever accomplished.

With his attention focused wholly on his child, the ensouled vampire would not have time to interfere in Wolfram and Hart's affairs.

Now it was time to come up with a plan to handle the slayer. "If what is already in motion does not work out, then you will be responsible for any action taken against the slayer," Lilah told Maggie.

The lawyers didn't tell Walsh that there were already plans in place to kill the slayer.

Buffy's mother was currently seeing a doctor for the headaches she had been having.

With this information the wheels started turning in Lilah's head again. "What is the prognosis?"

"The slayer doesn't know it yet, but her mother has a brain tumor." Walsh told her. "I've seen her scans."

"That's too bad."

From the sound of Lilah's voice, Walsh knew that Lilah was in no way concerned about Joyce Summers' health.

"Why is that? What...?"

"Think about it," Lilah told her. "What would be the slayer's reaction if she lost her mother?"

"She'd be devastated, of course; she … "

Lilah watched Walsh's face as realization dawned on her and when Walsh looked up, Lilah was nodding her head with an evil look in her eyes. "Can you do it without making it obvious?" She asked the professor.

Walsh spoke without hesitation leaving no doubt in the lawyer's mind. "Absolutely."

After exploring ways of accomplishing what needed to be done about Joyce if the current situation continued, they decided upon the best way to proceed.

Lindsey, who had been rather quiet, spoke up and said, "We also have plans for the slayer's younger sister. Taking her mother out of the picture will hurt the slayer, but we need her thoroughly focused on other things, things that do not include Angel.

"There is a hell god in Sunnydale named Glorificus, but the slayer doesn't know it yet and she will not be able to defeat it. We are going to give Dawn a little upgrade to make her capable of handling Glorificus. If we don't, this hell god will bring hell on earth trying to get back to her own dimension. We are not ready for that," he smiled evilly, "not yet anyway."

Part 4

A/N: The following events happened 2 years prior to 'Empty Places'.

During the first few months following Maggie Walsh's return to Sunnydale, her outlook was very positive; even her students noticed the change in her.

Before she could make Riley aware of her new found information about Buffy, Buffy's mother was hospitalized and it turned out, as Maggie already knew, that Joyce had a brain tumor that would require major surgery. Maggie decided that with Buffy being so concerned about her mother, she would have little, if any, time to spend with Riley.

She was mistaken.

Riley was more than attentive to Buffy and he spent every spare moment trying to comfort her and her sister, Dawn. After surgery, Joyce's doctor announced that he had gotten all of the tumor out in time and Joyce was expected to make a full recovery.

With that good news Buffy was finally able to relax and she was able to spend more one-on-one time with Riley.

Seeing this, Maggie was more determined than ever to change the focus of Buffy's attention away from Riley. She had to come up with a way to not only force Buffy to withdraw from UC Sunnydale, but to get rid of Buffy's influence in Riley's life. She didn't really want to proceed with the plans that she and her new friends in LA decided upon, but Buffy was leaving her no choice.

Maggie's first step would be to send Riley away from Sunnydale on a phoney mission, one that would keep him away for several weeks; next was to proceed with the action that was decided upon while she was in LA with Lilah and Lindsey; she had to change the focus of Buffy's attention.

Killing the slayer wasn't the answer since that would only make Riley grieve. No, the answer was to kill Joyce. With her mother out of the way, Buffy would have no other choice but to concentrate her attentions and affections on her younger sister. She would have no time for Riley.

Maggie recalled her LA conversation regarding Buffy's father. He hadn't been in the picture for a long time. Would he come to Sunnydale for his daughters or would he move them to wherever he lived?

From Lilah, Maggie found out that Hank Summers was permanently out of the picture. While his family thought he had moved to Spain with his secretary, this was in fact not the case. In truth he would never be coming back.

"Why is that? Does he know about his ex-wife's illness?" Maggie had asked. What she learned gave Maggie her first glimpse into the evil that was Wolfram and Hart. She shivered as she listened to Lilah describe how they had disposed of Hank Summers.

"He got into privileged information and sought to use it to his advantage. That we could not allow. He should have learned that going against us can be hazardous to your health; in fact, it can be downright fatal."

Lilah Morgan's voice in no way resembled that of the charming and personable young attorney that Maggie had first believed her to be. A combination of Lilah's voice and her words made Maggie shiver and she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

'I know this,' Maggie thought, 'I'd better not ever do anything to cross these people.'

Maggie proceeded with her plans for Riley; she sent him on a special mission which, according to her, required her best soldier for the job. Riley regretted having to leave Buffy at a time when her mother was so ill, but he was proud to have been chosen by Prof Walsh for such an important mission.

Maggie also proceeded with plans to kill Joyce Summers. It was an easy task. She walked into Sunnydale General Hospital one night after visiting hours dressed in a white lab coat and carrying a very large syringe in her pocket. When she left less than five minutes later, she had made sure that Joyce Summers would be dead in a matter of days, plenty of time before Riley was due to return.


	3. No More Maggie, No More Riley

Misled

Chapter 3 - No More Maggie, No More Riley

Part 1

With Riley away from Sunnydale, Maggie Walsh could concentrate her time more fully on her pet project, 314. Things were proceeding well and it was almost time for the unveiling, but she couldn't do that until Riley was back. After all, unknown to him, he was the second half of the project.

Lilah called one Friday evening asking for a favor. They had picked up Dawn from school and completed the creation of her replacement. However, their Dawn replacement was not functioning as expected and they wanted Maggie to take a look at it before they returned it to Sunnydale as Buffy's sister.

After all she had learned about Wolfram and Hart, Maggie was not anxious to return to their office, but she knew that she had to respond to Lilah's request for help. After hearing what they had done to Hank Summers, she could not afford to get on Lilah's bad side.

So she once again took the two hour drive down to Los Angeles. Actually, this could turn out to be a rather profitable trip for her. She had been thinking that if Project 314 did not work out as planned, the technology that Wolfram and Hart had in creating its replacement for Dawn might be adapted to replace 314. Of course she did not wish to harm Riley, but after all, it was the project that was important. Riley would understand.

When Maggie first met the Dawn replacement, she thought it was the actual person. The replacement could only be distinguished from a real human being if one really knew where to look. This new Dawn was intelligent, funny, likable and incredibly strong. In addition to that, Maggie learned that it also housed the green energy from the original key. She didn't even want to think about what had happened to the original Dawn.

Before giving her assessment of the replacement, Maggie asked to take it back to Sunnydale overnight so she and her team could study it further. Lilah liked that idea. It would give the replacement an opportunity to secretly observe Buffy and be ready when the time came for Dawn to return to Sunnydale.

Again and again the replacement astounded Walsh and her associates. All of its test results were off the charts. Maggie was very impressed. With Wolfram and Hart's support she could scratch Project 314; she had found a far superior prototype and it did not require additional demon parts.

As the testing continued the Initiative's team began to notice things that shouldn't be happening. The replacement was adapting and improving – it was learning at a rapid rate of speed. Maggie made the mistake of allowing it to see her initial progress report to Lilah and unknown to Maggie, the replacement modified the report before it was transmitted.

The replacement found its way into the room where Adam, Project 314, was kept. It convinced Adam that he was about to be destroyed and replaced with cyborgs like itself and the only way to save himself was to escape. Adam did.

While Riley was away, two unexplainable deaths occurred in Sunnydale. First Buffy's mother died unexpectedly. No one understood it; she had been fine after the surgery and the doctor was expecting a full recovery. There was no reasonable explanation for her death. Second, the day before Riley returned, Maggie Walsh was found dead in the Project 314 laboratory; evidence pointed to Adam as her killer.

Part 2

Riley was devastated to learn of Prof Walsh's death. He joined Buffy and the Scoobies after they had come up with a plan to defeat Adam. They were successful and the Initiative's government supporters decided that the Initiative was a failure and would not continue after Walsh's death.

After the defeat of Adam and the close of the Initiative, Riley felt that he and Buffy would now have time to work on their relationship; after all he was in love with her and he was sure that she felt the same way about him.

However, much to Riley's surprise and dismay, when he approached Buffy with the idea, he found that she did not even resemble the girl he was in love with. She had dropped out of college and was withdrawn every time he tried to talk to her. She spent every free moment with Dawn. She didn't even seem to want him around.

Riley didn't understand it. It was as if she found it offensive having him near. Well, he didn't have to take this from her. There were other women who were more than happy to have him around.

He thought of Sam, the private he met while on assignment for Prof Walsh. She seemed to genuinely care about him, but she wasn't Buffy. She was beautiful and smart and funny, but she wasn't Buffy. She was … aww hell, no matter what she was, she wasn't Buffy. There was no one else in the world like Buffy. The question was, "Could he be happy, if not happy, could he at least be content with someone else?" He'd have to find out. He couldn't continue having his heart broken by someone who didn't even want him around.

He would take the assignment offered to him by Sam's commanding officer. At least he'd be with someone who cared about him.

He would stay only if Buffy asked him to stay.

Two nights later Riley was boarding an army helicopter bound for parts unknown. Not only had Buffy not asked him to stay, it didn't even seem to bother her that he was leaving.


	4. Who Is The Real Enemy

Misled

Chapter 4 – Who Is The Real Enemy

Buffy knew that something was wrong in her house. She didn't know what it was and she didn't know who was responsible, but her slayer radar was going haywire and there were no vampires around. Whatever it was that was causing this slayer alert was not of the normal vampire or demon variety; this thing was human, or at least pretending to be human.

Pretending to be human? Where did that thought come from? Buffy felt as if she might as well run with the possibility, see where it led her. Who were the candidates? That's an easy question to answer – everybody. Some of the people in her house could be eliminated right away, like the potentials for instance; the only vibes she was getting from them were hostility and fear. Even Kennedy, she talked tough, but underneath she was as scared as the rest of them.

Speaking of being scared, that also let Andrew out. Xander also was not a candidate; Xander didn't even _know_ any magic and it would take some powerful magic to make a being appear human when it was not. Willow and Giles knew magic and the feelings from them, while changed, still did not feel threatening in any way.

Principle Wood was hard to read; he may be just what he appeared to be, someone out for revenge against vampires in general, but specifically against Spike for killing his mother. Even so, that didn't add up to being a threat against everybody else in the house.

And Anya, if she wanted to, Buffy was sure she could get one of her old vengeance demon buddies to do some serious damage to all of them, but she hadn't done that. Even when she became a demon again, she didn't try to come after anyone, except maybe Xander for leaving her at the altar. Nope, it wasn't Anya. Buffy didn't think it was Spike either; he had too many chances to kill them all if he had wanted to.

That reasoning only left three of them that Buffy saw as possibilities for who might not be one hundred percent human – Dawn, Faith and herself. She and Faith may not be totally human because they're slayers and some kind of powerful magic was used to make slayers. That left Dawn, None of them really knew exactly what Dawn was. All they knew was what that dieing monk had told her. Could the monks really create a normal human being?

'I know that it is not me and it is not Faith either because I was getting these vibes long before Faith showed up here. That only leaves Dawn. Dawn? Can it really be her? I know that she still has the green energy of the key inside her, I've seen it; but what would be her goal in trying to harm us? I'd hate to think that I gave my life for someone that's now trying to kill us all.

'I don't know, but I have to keep my eye on Dawn.'


	5. Was It Really Dawn

Misled

A/N: The story now picks up with 'Empty Places'.

Chapter 5 – Was That Really Dawn

Part 1

In Sunnydale

Buffy turned her back to Dawn, Faith and the potentials to face the three people in the room that had been closest to her since she came to Sunnydale, the people that she considered her family, Giles, Willow and Xander, and asked, "Do all of you agree with Dawn? That I should leave?"

None of them answered her directly, however, they seemed to find the floor very interesting all of a sudden.

"Unbelievable," she muttered as she turned and headed toward the stairs that led to the second floor of the house.

Upstairs Buffy took a shower and dressed in comfortable traveling clothes. She then collected everything that she considered important enough to take with her, considering she had no intentions of ever coming back to this house. After the items were collected, she then carefully packed them into her luggage, a gift from her Aunt Arlene when she graduated from high school.

In addition to her clothes, she took a picture of her mother, her mother's jewelry, the deed to the house, her mother's will and bank book and the spare keys to her mother's car, the diamond earrings given to her by her father on her fifteenth birthday and, of course, Mr. Gordo.

Without a backward glance at the room that had been hers since she and her mother moved to Sunnydale when she was sixteen, Buffy headed for the stairs. She wore the black leather jacket, silver cross and Claddagh ring given to her by Angel; she carried her luggage in her left hand and in her right hand she carried the sword given to her by Giles, the same sword she carried when she went to fight Angelus five years earlier.

Less than twenty minutes after she had been told to leave, she came down the stairs and headed for the front door.

She ignored Dawn when she called her name and continued toward the door.

"Buffy."

When Giles called her name, she stopped and turned to face him.

Seeing the look on her face, Giles could find no words to say to her; he simply whispered her name again, silently pleading, hoping she could tell by his voice how sorry he was for what had happened.

"Buffy."

"What is it, Giles? Do you want the sword back?"

No one else seemed to notice the thin green mist that Buffy could see surrounding Dawn. Without waiting for Giles to answer, she tossed the sword on the floor before she turned to Dawn and asked, "You think I don't know what you are?" Without waiting for a reply, she turned and walked out of the house.

Faith ran after her. "Look, I swear I didn't want it to go down this way."

"Regardless of the way you wanted it, you got it; you're on your own."

When Faith didn't respond, Buffy walked to the car and put the luggage behind the driver's seat; she then climbed into the car and drove off.

Part 2

Inside the house, as soon as she heard the car pull off, Dawn walked to the phone in the kitchen and dialed a familiar number. Even though they could not hear the person on the other end of the line, some of those in the living room knew something was wrong. Just as Faith re-entered the house, she heard Dawn speaking on the phone.

"It's done." "The car."

When she turned around toward the living room, Dawn found herself facing an angry Giles. "Dawn, what have you done? Whom did you call?"

Surprised, but not intimidated, Dawn answered, "What are you talking about? I called my father to let him know that Buffy was probably headed his way."

"That's not true, Dawn," Willow accused. "Your father is in Spain with his mistress. Buffy told me so."

"Oh, so now you trust her? Half an hour ago none of you trusted her judgment; all of you wanted her out of the house. Well now she's out. For good."

With a voice that told her he was dead serious, Giles repeated his questions. "What have you done and whom did you call?"

"You don't scare me, Giles."

Dawn snapped her fingers three times. Snap. Snap. Snap.

With each snap of her fingers a portion of the contents of the house disappeared until the house looked like no one lived in it; all of the furnishings were completely gone. 'That should shake them up a bit,' Dawn thought to herself with an inward sneer.

People who had been sitting on furniture found themselves on the floor. "What the hell!" Rona yelled from the floor.

Willow tried to explain. "It's an illusion."

"If it's an illusion, do I just _think_ my butt feels like it just hit the floor?" Anya complained.

Again Giles demanded of Dawn, "Who are you?"

"You know me, Giles; I'm Dawn, Buffy's little sister," Dawn answered, her voice menacing, her eyes glowing a bright green.

Just then a car was heard from outside the house.

Faith, who was closest to the door, looked outside thinking, hoping, that Buffy had come back. "It's a limo."

"I believe that's my ride," Dawn said as she headed toward the door.

"Dawn stop," Willow yelled at her.

When Dawn ignored her, Willow tried to use magic to stop her.

Dawn turned quickly; her hair flowed wildly about her head and her eyes glowed brilliant green. She pointed her finger and Willow flew back into the opposite wall and crashed to the floor, dazed. She tried to get up, but couldn't.

"Honestly, Willow, you think your puny magic can touch me? You should have known better than that." She gave a little smirk, glanced at Giles and walked out the door.


	6. Messages From Her Father

Misled

Chapter 6 – Messages From Her Father

Part 1

Meanwhile, on the highway headed south toward Los Angeles, Buffy shook her head as she thought, 'So, I was right, it was Dawn. I wonder if she will reveal herself now and leave or just come after me without letting the others know what she really is. The others are safe for now since I'm sure that she'll follow me shortly; I just need to get to Dad's house and get a good night's sleep.'

An hour and a half later Buffy pulled the Jeep up in front of her father's house, got out and walked to the door. She tried the key that she had to his house, but it no longer fit the lock. 'What is going on?' she thought just as the door opened and a man, who appeared to be in his sixties, answered the door.

The man recognized Buffy and before she could speak, he asked, "You're Buffy, right?"

"Yes. Who are you and what are you doing in my father's house?"

"I'm Christopher Lelands. Your father leased his house to my wife, LeeAnn, and me almost five years ago. Excuse me."

He called to his wife inside the house, "Honey, Buffy is here; bring the package."

A woman, who also appeared to be in her sixties, came to the door carrying a small package; she greeted Buffy. "I'm happy to finally meet you, Buffy; we were beginning to think that you weren't going to show up."

"I still don't understand how you know me on sight, because I've never seen either of you before."

"Forgive me, would you like to come in?" The wife asked.

When Buffy replied, "No thank you," the woman continued.

"Your father leased us the house completely furnished through a realtor. According to the realtor, his only stipulation was that we give you this package and this photograph that he left with the realtor so we could recognize you. He said that you were fifteen when this was taken."

Buffy recognized the photograph; it had been taken on her fifteenth birthday, the birthday when her father gave her diamond earrings, the last happy birthday she would probably ever have.

Buffy put on her best 'sad and disappointed' face, took the items, thanked the Lelands and walked back to her car. It hadn't been difficult for her to pretend to be sad and disappointed because that was exactly the way she was feeling at the moment.

She put her hands on the steering wheel, put her head down on her hands and pretended to weep – 'just in case they are watching' she told herself. After what she felt was an award winning performance, she pretended to dry her eyes before she started the car and drove off.

Inside the house, Christopher Lelands turned from the window and asked his wife, "Do you think she bought it?"

"Of course she bought it. Did you see the look on her face when we told her? She has been sitting in the car and crying for a long time. How can a man go off and leave his family like that?"

"We don't know that he did. All we know is what that Wolfram and Hart lawyer told us. We have done what they wanted; hopefully now we are rid of them for good and we can go home."

Christopher hugged his wife. It had been a long and trying time for them, but their obligation to Wolfram and Hart was over, he hoped.

He recalled the first time they met Lindsey MacDonald. They had been introduced by a mutual acquaintance and Lindsey had been very polite and very professional. When their son was arrested on a murder charge about a month later, they thought how fortunate they had been to already know an attorney of Lindsey MacDonald's caliber.

Lindsey went to work right away and before Christopher and LeeAnn knew what was happening they had a team of lawyers, private investigators and others working for them on their son's case. Lindsey assured them that this was necessary in order to present a solid defense for their son.

The debt piled up so fast that they owed Wolfram and Hart so much money, there was no way they could ever pay it. That was when they were approached with a proposal that would free them of their financial obligations to Wolfram and Hart and keep their son free until the trial was over.

All they had to do was lease this house owned by Henry Summers and give a package to his daughter when she came looking for her father. The deal sounded too good to be true. Looking back on it now, the Lelands had to acknowledge, it really was too good to be true.

They didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary when Mr. Summers showed up at the house less than a year later and told them that they had the wrong package; they had been given the package meant for his ex-wife. The package he gave them had 'Buffy' written on it instead of Ms Summers. Fortunately, they never mentioned the switch to Lindsey MacDonald.

The things that the Lelands had to do for Wolfram and Hart over the past few years made their skin crawl, but hopefully, that was over now. The package had been delivered.

Part 2

After leaving the Lelands, Buffy drove to a local ATM and withdrew what little money was left in her mother's bank accounts and closed her own accounts. She hadn't lived in LA for a long time, but she still knew her way around. She found a motel and took a room for the night. She needed to think, and to plan.

Something was wrong at her father's house. Why would Hank leave a package meant for her with complete strangers? Why wouldn't he leave it with his attorney, Mr. Kaufman? And what happened to her clothes and personal belongings that she left at her father's house?

Had it really been five years since she had heard from her father? He hadn't responded when she'd tried to reach him when her mother died. Was he already out of the country then? If so, why didn't the people at his office just say so?

Buffy was so tired when she arrived at the motel that she didn't bother opening the package given her by the Lelands; she put it on the small desk in the room, got ready for bed and was asleep within minutes.

Part 3

The next morning when she awoke, she remembered the package from her father. Upon opening it she found two letters, one addressed to her and one to her mother, Joyce. Buffy nearly burst into tears; Hank hadn't known about his ex-wife's death.

She read her letter first.

"Buffy,

Hey, Baby Girl. I'm sorry that our last communication has to be this way, but I didn't want to burden you with any more than you already have. I know about the slaying; I found out recently. I'm sorry that your mother and I didn't believe you when you tried to tell us about it; I'm sorry that we made things so much more difficult for you than they had to be.

By the time you get this package I will be gone. I found out recently that I am terminal; I have just a matter of a few days. I don't know what happened; I was always so careful with my health. I have leased the house to the Lelands; they seem like nice people. The enclosed key is to my bank vault; you know where it is. It contains everything of value that I own, including the deed and lease agreement for the house, my insurance policies, bank accounts, my will, etc.

I guess you're wondering why I didn't have Kaufman handle this for me. He is not the person he used to be since he went to work for Wolfram and Hart. If you have any encounter with them, don't trust them, Buffy. I got in too deep with that company before I knew what was happening and, though I can't prove it, I truly believe that they are responsible for my rapidly declining health.

I'm sorry that I wasn't a better father for you, but I had to get you and your mother away from Los Angeles before they turned their attention to the two of you.

I love you, Baby Girl, you and your mother.

Dad"

Buffy was absolutely distraught after reading the letter from her father. Both of her parents were dead. What had happened between her father and Wolfram and Hart? What had he found out about them that made them, if what he suspected is true, murder him? How could she find out?

She next opened the letter addressed to her mother; it was very brief.

"Joyce,

I'm sorry...for everything. I never meant to make things difficult for you. I had hoped that some day we would find our way back to each other. I know now that that will never happen. Take care of yourself and Buffy. I love you both.

Hank"

Did this mean that Hank divorced Joyce to get her and Buffy out of LA? So they would be safe? What kind of plan was that? Was he really that desperate to protect his family? These letters left Buffy with more questions than answers.

After having breakfast at a local diner, Buffy headed over to the bank where her father had his vault. The bank manager, Janice Florence, who was Joyce's good friend, recognized her right away.

"Buffy, so nice to see you, all grown up; I haven't seen you or your parents in years. I trust they are well."

At the look on Buffy's face, she took Buffy into a big hug. I'm so sorry, dear. I knew your parents since high school; Joyce and I were good friends. We just lost touch after she left LA."

Buffy and the woman spoke briefly about her parents and she was then escorted into the back of the bank to the vaults. "Take your time, Buffy; I'll be in my office if you need me."

Mrs. Florence went into her office and closed the door; she then took out her cell phone and dialed a local phone number. When the phone was answered, she simply said, "She's here."

"What? How much does it take to get rid of that little bitch?"

Ignoring the outburst, she asked, "Do you need me for anything else, Lilah?"

"No, thank you, Janice; you've been very helpful. Say hello to my nephew for me."

"I will."

Mrs. Florence hung up the phone and leaned back in her chair; the look on her face showed the grave dislike that she felt for Lilah Morgan. 'I certainly hope that is the last we'll ever hear from you, stepsister dear, you damn murderer. I know that you killed my friend; if only I had some proof.'

In the back of the bank Buffy reviewed the contents of her father's vault. 'There is a lot of stuff here. I guess whatever dad did for a living paid really well.' Near the bottom of the vault was another letter addressed to Buffy.

"Buffy,

As the saying goes, if you're reading this I must be dead. Sorry, Baby Girl, bad joke. I want you to take the accompanying information with you, read it carefully, several times if necessary, then burn it. Take ten thousand dollars from the vault. You will need it to accomplish what needs to be done."

Buffy did as she was told. After reading the letter, she folded it and the other information and put it into the zippered pocket inside her jacket. She would study it in detail before she burned it.


	7. Dealing With The Aftermath

Misled

Chapter 7 – Dealing With The Aftermath

Back at the Summers house, Kennedy rushed to Willow's side and tried to help her up. Willow was still dazed.

"What hit me? I feel as weak as a kitten."

"Dawn zapped you with some kind of magic after she removed everything from the house," Kennedy told her.

"I didn't even know that Dawn knew magic; did you, Giles?"

"No, I didn't." He massaged his temples in an effort to ease the headache that he had had all evening.

"What are we going to do now? Rona demanded. "We have no food, no beds, no clothes, nothing."

Anya spoke up, "We need Buffy back; she'd know what to do."

"We kicked that bitch out because she wasn't helping when she was here," Rona told her.

"You need to shut your foul mouth," Xander glared at her; "who do you think has been feeding you since you got here?"

"I'm not the only one that wanted her gone; the rest of you wanted her gone, too," Rona offered in her own defense.

"Well we were wrong and I knew that as soon as we said it."

Everyone turned to face Faith, but nobody said anything.

"Before we end up in an all out brawl with each other," Faith spoke again, "does anyone know what B meant when she asked Dawn, 'You think I don't know what you are?'"

Nobody knew, not even Giles.

"Well were Dawn's eyes glowing green before B left here?"

"No." "Not that I saw." "I don't think so." came some of the replies.

"No," Anya said with certainty, "her eyes didn't glow until Giles asked her who she was." She turned to Giles. "Giles, how did you know that she wasn't Dawn?"

"I don't know that she wasn't Dawn. My guess is that she was either possessed by some thing or working for someone."

"But when did this happen?" Xander asked.

"I have a theory," Anya offered. "It could have happened when that hitch-hiker was in the house. Maybe what Buffy killed wasn't the hitch-hiker at all, or maybe only one of them."

"Your theory is a plausible one, but before we venture too far into theories, we should address the immediate issue at hand and that is sleeping arrangements since we have all had dinner. Tonight we will have to sleep on the floor; come tomorrow morning we can figure out something else."

There was mumbling and grumbling from the group, especially from the potentials.

"Has anybody remembered that we don't have weapons and we are sitting ducks if we are attacked tonight?" Anya asked.

"I have a stake," Faith offered; "never leave home without it."

"One stake? Giles do you think Willow can put a ward of protection around the house?"

"Willow can't do anything," Kennedy told them before Giles could answer. "She told you she's as weak as a kitten; now she's either asleep or passed out and I haven't been able to wake her up."

"Give me your stake, Faith; I'll do the ward."

Without questioning him, Faith handed the stake to Giles.

Giles moved to stand between the living room and dining room. Holding the stake with both hands he closed his eyes and mumbled a few words.

When he opened his eyes again, he said, "The ward is in place. Faith take the first watch and wake me in four hours. Sooner, if necessary." He handed the stake back to her.

"Giles, why did you need my stake?"

"To fuel the spell I needed your power that you have applied when using that stake. Anyone that tries to break through the ward will be hit with a force as powerful as you are when you strike with that stake."

He then approached Willow and briefly touched her forehead. Willow awoke soon after. Kennedy was grateful. Willow was groggy, but she was awake.


	8. A Friend Indeed

Misled

Chapter 8 – A Friend Indeed

Buffy took the money, her father's letter and the attached documents from the vault, said goodbye to Janice Florence and headed out of the bank to return to her motel room. As she was leaving the bank she ran into Cordelia Chase, almost literally.

"Buffy, what a surprise; what're you doing in LA? Has something happened in Sunnydale?"

When she caught the look on Buffy's face, Cordelia shivered. She put an arm around Buffy's shoulders and said, "Come on. Let's go to my apartment; we can talk over tea or something."

"Thanks, Cordy, it's okay; I just really have a lot on my mind right now."

"Unh unh, Summers. Something is really wrong and tea always helps. Come on; I'm not taking no for an answer."

Buffy relented and smiled a little. "Queen C, pushy as ever."

"Not even," Cordelia laughed; "I'm so much worse than I was in high school."

Cordelia walked Buffy back to the apartment that she shared with a ghost named Dennis. She warned Buffy about Dennis before she opened the door. Gunn and Wesley were already there.

After greeting Wesley who introduced her to Charles Gunn, Buffy told Cordelia, "Cordy, don't bother making tea, water will be fine. I can't stay long; I really have a lot to do."

Cordelia retrieved two bottles of water and stopped abruptly in the doorway as she returned to the living room. She noticed Buffy's humped shoulders and the look of despair on her face as she rubbed her brow. 'I don't know what it is, but something is definitely wrong with our favorite slayer.'

Buffy straightened up quickly and attempted to change her facial expression when she became aware that Cordelia was back with the water.

Cordelia wasn't having it. "Don't even try it, Buffy; this isn't like you. I know something is wrong. Tell us your tale of woe and we'll tell you ours."

Buffy and the AI group brought each other up to date on what had been happening.

"And I thought we had it bad," Cordelia told Buffy.

"I don't know what is in the rest of the documents that my father left for me, but I am guessing it is pretty bad. It cost him his life."

"I understand that you want to read them over and decide upon what to do next, but I just want you to know that I am on your side and I want to help no matter what the fight turns out to be." This came from Cordelia.

"Yes, Buffy, I will help as well," Wesley told her.

"Count me in too, Buffy," Gunn spoke up.

Buffy smiled, a true smile this time. "Thanks, guys. Cordy. You know you were wrong, you're not worse than you were in high school, you're so much better."

Cordelia whispered conspiratorially, "Shh, don't let anybody hear you say that. What're you trying to do, ruin my reputation?"

They all laughed. It helped to ease the tension a little.

The LA group talked more about AI and Angel and how concerned they were about the direction Angel was headed.

Buffy understood their dilemma, but she had her own assessment of the situation.

"Based on what you've told me and knowing Angel as I do, I think he's just trying to protect his friends by separating himself from you right now. What he is facing is huge. He is going to have to kill his sire and his favorite childe and the personal fallout from that will be tremendous.

"He will come back to all of you and when he does, you guys need to accept him back, readily, with open arms."

Wesley agreed with her. "You're right; I know you're right. It's just so hard to see him fall apart like this."

"I don't think he has fallen apart. I think what he's doing is building himself up, preparing himself for what he has to face, what he has to do."

Cordelia looked at Buffy with a smile on her face.

Catching the look, Buffy asked, "What?"

"It looks like I'm not the only one that's done some maturing since high school."

"Yeah well, it was bound to happen," Buffy told her.

"Are you still playing the 'I'm not good at research' game?"

Buffy chuckled. "And how did you know that?"

"Most people see what others want them to see; I see what people don't want me to see. Besides, once I learned to use the computer, I checked you out. I hacked into Hemery's student data base. You were an 'A' student before you became a slayer, and taking advanced classes. Why did you need a tutor when you came to Sunnydale?"

Buffy gave a little smirk and looked at Cordelia, but she didn't say anything.

It dawned on Cordelia what she was not saying.

"You little devil, you didn't need a tutor. But why did you pretend that you did?"

"I saw how you treated Willow my first day there. I just wanted her to develop a little self confidence."

Cordelia gave a little snort. "Well it worked. She just kicked you out of your own house."

"It wasn't just her; it was all of them – Giles, Xander, Dawn, everybody. None of them trusted me to lead them any more. They chose Faith to lead them."

"What?" Wesley asked incredulously. "And Mr. Giles went along with this? Unbelievable."

"That's what I said. They'll be okay for now; I'm sure that Dawn will follow me."

Cordelia was confused. "But where would she stay? You said that someone else was in your father's house."

"I don't know; she doesn't know about the hotel, unless whoever she's working for is in LA."

Cordelia nearly choked on the water she was drinking. "Oh gods, I bet I know who it is.

"Buffy, look at the information from you father and see if it mentions a law firm called Wolfram and Hart."

"I know it does. He mentioned them in his first letter to me, told me not to trust them."

"He was right about that. They could be controlling Dawn without her knowing anything about it. Dawn came to the hotel this morning looking for you; she asked me not to tell you if I saw you."

"Thanks for telling me. I need to find out what the story is with her; I need to confront Dawn, but first I need to read all of this information from my father."


	9. A Friend And A Foe

Misled

Chapter 9 – A Friend And A Foe

Part 1

Back in her hotel room Buffy read the information from her father several times; it was all so difficult to believe. According to what her father had written,

=Wolfram and Hart has perfected a cyborg that was so human-like that an ordinary human being cannot distinguish it from a living person and the cyborg contains all of the memories of the person it was made from.

=The law firm is aware of a being called Dawn that was created by monks to fight Glorificus once the hell god comes looking for her key in this dimension; Dawn houses the key to Glori's dimension; there is a disagreement among the monks regarding Dawn's future after her fight with Glorificus.

=Wolfram and Hart is currently negotiating with the monks to have Dawn sent to the slayer and to convince the slayer that Dawn is her sister; if this works, unknown to the monks, W&H plans to replace the original Dawn with one of their cyborgs.

=The cyborg runs on a long-lasting power cell. Removing the power cell will slow it down but will not stop it since it has a 2-hour emergency backup power source; to destroy the cyborg it must be completely submersed in acid.

=W&H plans to have Maggie Walsh kill Joyce. If this happens, you can expect that Walsh will also be killed.

Some of this information was received too late to be helpful to Buffy. For example, if she had known that Dawn was created to fight Glorificus, she would not have given her life so that Dawn could live.

Buffy didn't know what progress had been made in some of the other areas outlined by her father; after all, this information was more than four years old. She wondered what kind of agreement had been made between Wolfram and Hart and the monks and more important than that, did Walsh actually kill her mother.

'If she did,' Buffy thought, 'it's a good thing that she's already dead, because I would gladly kill her myself.'

She assumed that her father was killed before he could get in touch with her or her mother to warn them.

The information explained everything in detail; it also directed her to one of Hank's friends who practiced magic and who would be expecting her. She wasn't sure what to expect from her father's friend, but she would see this person anyway.

Buffy recalled her words to Dawn as she left her house in Sunnydale, 'You think I don't know what you are?' At the time all she knew, suspected really, was that Dawn was not the being created by the original monks. Now, based on information from Hank, it was likely that the Dawn she knew originally had been replaced by a cyborg. If that is true, then the current Dawn could be very dangerous.

'Gods, this is so incredibly hard to believe. I need to let Cordelia and the others know what I've learned about Dawn. They need to know how dangerous she is.'

Buffy dialed Cordelia's number; when the recorded voice mail greeting came on the line, she hung up the phone. 'Where can they be? I don't have their cell numbers.' She dialed Cordelia's number again. This time when Cordelia's recorded greeting came on, Buffy left a message warning her about Dawn.

Part 2

Hank's friend, Gerenea, was expecting Buffy when she showed up at Gerenea's Magic Emporium. "You look exactly as your father said you would," she told Buffy. "I can feel the fire and determination in you, slayer. Keep that; you will need it in order to do what needs to be done.

"Please join me in my office."

Gerenea flipped over the 'OPEN' sign on the front door to 'CLOSED', locked the door and directed Buffy to her office where she offered her a seat and a cup of tea.

Once they were both seated with their beverages, Gerenea proceeded. "The being that you knew as your sister, Dawn, has been converted into a cyborg by Wolfram and Hart and has been living in your house for some time." She handed Buffy a gold colored envelop.

"This contains instructions for everything you will need to defeat the cyborg. I need to go over this in detail with you; much depends on having everything done exactly as I describe. You must be careful, Buffy; that thing is extraordinarily strong. Your slayer strength will not be enough to defeat it; you must outsmart it.

"The warehouse mentioned in the instructions used to be owned by a storage and transport company. There is a portion of the main floor that is weight sensitive. Anything over 50 pounds that lands on it is automatically delivered to the floor below through a chute. Put this target on the wall directly over the center of the chute, the spell will draw her to that portion of the wall. Make sure that you mount the restraints as shown in the diagram, the first spell that I am giving you will do the rest.

"Memorize it; you will need it when you confront Caleb. The second spell will destroy the First's evil army. These are my gifts to you."

Buffy looked at the witch; she was not expecting this.

Gerenea smiled. "I know more about you than you think. Prepare the acid first, before you confront Dawn. Parce Chemical Company is waiting for your call. They already have on hand the quantity that you need."

Gerenea went over the instructions in detail with Buffy until she was satisfied that the slayer knew exactly what to do.

"I-I don't know how to thank you for this."

"No need. You are my friend's daughter. Being able to help you is all the thanks I need. Your father was a good man, Buffy. He took a job that he thought was an opportunity of a lifetime, but then he stumbled into something that he couldn't get out of and it eventually cost him his life. By the time he came to me it was too late; there was little I could do for him beyond reducing the pain a little. Your father loved you and your mother. He wanted me to tell you that."

Buffy nodded and rose to leave, but before she got to the door she heard -

"Slayer, you must reunite with Angelus. He is going through a rough time right now, and he needs to know that he still has you."

"He will always have me," Buffy said with firm assurance without turning around.

"I know that and you know that, but right now, he doesn't." She walked over to Buffy and touched the slayer's left temple with her index finger.

Buffy took a quick intake of breath and her vision became blurry for a few seconds as power she had never felt before surged through her. She saw what Gerenea wanted her to see and she understood the truth of the witch's words. Angel needed her right now, even if it was just for moral support.

Buffy thanked Gerenea again and left quickly, fighting to hold back the tears. Angel still loved her; he needed her. She would see him before she faced Dawn.

Part 3

At the Wolfram and Hart office Lilah and Lindsey were in a meeting when Dawn stormed in. "I can't find her. Where is she?"

"Dawn, we will find her; you need to calm down, there are others in this office," Lindsey told her.

Outraged, Dawn grabbed Lindsey by the throat and squeezed as she lifted him from his chair. "Who do you think you are?" She demanded. "You're nothing."

Lindsey's face started turning blue from lack of oxygen. Dawn shook him like a rag doll and demanded again, louder this time, "Where is she?"

Lilah was enjoying Lindsey's distress. "Put him down, Dawn; I can help you find the slayer."

With a quick twist of her wrist she broke Lindsey's neck and tossed him into a corner of the room without a backward glance.

'Lindsey, poor bastard,' Lilah thought to herself. Aloud to Dawn she said, "The slayer has only a limited number of contacts in this city. She will likely contact Angel and Cordelia Chase, if she has not already done so."

"I saw Cordelia at the Hyperion hotel yesterday; she said that Buffy had not been there. I could tell that she was telling the truth."

"The slayer may not have been to the hotel, but that doesn't mean that Cordelia hasn't seen her."

Dawn was mad at herself for not thinking of that. She turned and walked out again without so much as a glance at the man she had just killed.

Part 4

Gunn was headed out the door of the Hyperion hotel carrying his a small duffel bag and his hubcap weapon when Dawn approached. He held the door for her.

"Thank you," she said cordially, "is Buffy here?"

"I don't think so. You should check inside with Cordelia; she might know."

Gunn carried his belongings to his truck and started to climb in, then it dawned on him. 'I bet that was Dawn, the slayer's sister. I'd better make sure everything's all right.'

Meanwhile inside the hotel, Dawn confronted Cordelia. ''Where is Buffy? And don't tell me she hasn't been here, because I know that you've seen her."

"Well she hasn't been here and I haven't seen her since yesterday. What is with you two, Dawn? Why don't you just call her on her cell?"

"She won't talk to me and I need to see her. Any idea where she might be?"

"I don't know, Dawn. Did you check your father's house or maybe the motels? I don't really know."

Dawn noticed that Cordelia was packing things from her desk into a box so she asked, "What are you doing?"

"I've been fired; we all have."

"Angel fired you? Why?"

"He's flipped, Dawn; stay out of his way if you run into him. He's out of his mind; that's all I can tell you."

Dawn looked at Cordelia closely. What she said about Angel was true, but she was stalling, or lying, about not knowing where Buffy was. "Why are you lying to me? You know where Buffy is." She grabbed Cordelia's arm. "Where is she?"

Just then Gunn came running back into the hotel. "Hey. Let her go."

Still holding Cordelia's arm, Dawn's eyes glowed bright green and with one look she sent Gunn flying back into the door he had just entered. She turned her attention back to Cordelia. "I won't ask you again."

"I told you, Dawn, I don't know where Buffy is." Cordelia cried out in pain as Dawn applied more pressure to her arm.

Dawn twisted until she heard the arm snap. "If I have to find you again, I will make sure that it is more than your arm that's broken. Next time it will be your neck." She gave a little push and Cordelia landed on the floor on her broken arm and again cried out in pain.

Dawn stepped over Gunn without looking down as she exited the hotel.

Part 5

An hour later Wesley was in the waiting room of LA General Hospital waiting for Cordelia and Gunn. When Gunn regained consciousness in the hotel, he found Cordelia struggling to sit up on the floor. He called an ambulance and had Wesley meet them at the hospital.

Wesley joined Gunn in one of the patient rooms. "So that was Dawn? She looks just like a regular human being, and what is with her eyes?"

"Her eyes?" Wesley was confused.

"Just before she zapped me with her laser ray, or whatever it was, her eyes glowed bright green."

Wesley jumped up, frantic. "We need to contact Mr. Giles. She still has the energy of the key."

"What?"

"I'll explain later. Let me borrow your cell phone."

After speaking with Giles, Wesley knew that he had to find Buffy before Dawn did.


	10. Buffy And Dawn Face Off

Misled

Chapter 10 – Buffy and Dawn Face Off

Part 1

Buffy had to pull herself together. She did not have time to fall apart now. That cyborg, or whatever it was, was out there and it would not stop until she had destroyed it or it had killed her. She was glad that the people at her house in Sunnydale were safe now that Dawn was in LA; she just had to follow Gerenea's instructions and get ready for their confrontation.

She ordered the vat of acid that she needed and left instructions for it to be delivered in two hours. She found just the right spot for it in the warehouse that Gerenea's directions led her to. It was in the old neighborhood where Angel had his first office.

'Funny Gerenea would pick this neighborhood. I wonder why. Is there some significance to this location?' Buffy didn't have the answers to her own questions right now and it really wasn't that important. What was important was that she had to see Angel.

She dialed the AI number at the Hyperion and there was no answer. She then dialed his personal number. She heard the sound of someone picking up the receiver and then the sound of the receiver being slammed down again.

'Well at least I know he's there. I'll just pay him a little visit.'

When she arrived at the Hyperion, Buffy found the door unlocked and the receptionist area looked like a fight had taken place. She wasn't concerned about the AI crew because based on her conversation with them the day before, she didn't expect any of them to be there.

Following Cordelia's directions she proceeded up the stairs to Angel's suite. His door was ajar and she looked in. Angel was sitting at his desk with his back to the door; she could see the hunched shoulders and could just imagine the look on his face. His right elbow was on the desk and the side of his face was propped up on his fist.

At that moment she could imagine the torment he was going through.

"Angel." She spoke softly.

He turned slowly. The look on his face touched her heart.

"Angel." She repeated.

"Buffy." His voice was a whimper, a cry for help, like a wounded pet relieved to see its owner.

She went to him, put her arms around him and held him close. She knew what he had done; he had staked Darla and Drusilla. She could only imagine what he was feeling. She let him sob out his misery onto her and she took it willingly, silently, no meaningless platitudes or senseless dribble like 'it's okay' or 'it's going to be all right'; she just held onto him as if her life depended on it, just as he was holding onto her.

He needed to know that she was there for him at a time when he really needed her.

She was.

The tears eventually stopped, but Angel did not release his hold on Buffy; he still held on to her, afraid she would disappear if he let go. Half an hour later he lifted his head to look into her eyes. She could see that he was about to apologize; she shook her head and whispered,

"Don't."

That was all he needed. He hugged her so tightly she could hardly breathe. He kissed her on the side of her neck. "How did you know that I needed you so badly?"

"A special friend showed me and she let me feel your sadness. There is no way that I would not come to you."

"I wasn't sure ... I didn't know if ..."

"If what?"

"If you still cared … if you still loved me."

"Angel how can you even doubt that? Do you remember the last time we saw each other in Sunnydale? In case you don't, it was the night you spent with me in the cemetery after we buried my mother. I don't know how I would've gotten through that night without you.

"No matter where I am and whether or not there is someone else in my life, I will still love you - first, most and always."

"I still love you too, Buffy, forever and always. Angelus tried to force me to open the link between us so he could contact you, but I wouldn't let him. I thought that you were happy and I didn't want to interfere by bringing my misery into your life."

"Oh, Angel ..." she said softly.

Then she gave him a hard thump on the upper arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"So you admit that Angelus is smarter than you are?"

"No! Well, maybe … sometimes."

He kissed her then, a sweet gentle kiss.

Buffy wasn't having it. She tightened her arms around him and took charge of the kiss.

"There, " she said with a mischievous grin, "now that's a kiss."

"Is that right?" Angel asked with his little half smile/half smirk. He stood up, took Buffy in his arms and gave her a long, mind-blowing, toe-curling kiss.

When she could breathe again, Buffy admitted, "I stand corrected."

They both laughed.

Angel sat back down and pulled her onto his lap. "I'm really glad that you're here."

"Me too." She gave a little hint of a smile. "Even if you did slam the phone down in my ear."

"Sorry about that."

"It's okay; I forgive you."

They talked for about an hour, getting reacquainted and bonding until he saw Buffy check the time on her cell phone. It was almost time for the acid to be delivered.

"Do you have to leave?" Angel asked fearing that her answer would be 'yes'.

"I'm afraid so. I have a delivery coming in less than thirty minutes and I have to get to a warehouse on Sigorney before it arrives."

"I'll drive you. Come on."

As they passed through the lobby, Angel spoke his thoughts out loud. "I wonder what happened here."

"You mean you didn't do this?"

"No. I heard Cordy down here early this morning just before I left. I assumed she was cleaning out her desk."

"You'd better find them and make sure they're all right. Dawn might've been here."

"Dawn?"

"I don't have time to explain now; there's the delivery truck up ahead. Just drop me off and call your friends. They may be hurt."

"What?"

Buffy got out of the car. "You have to hurry, Angel."

When Cordelia didn't answer her cell phone, Angel called Gunn; Wesley answered Gunn's cell and told him they were at the hospital. "I'm on my way," Angel told him and hung up the phone before Wesley could tell him not to come.

When Angel got to the hospital, it was a wreck. Dawn had been there looking for Cordelia again, expecting her to be there because of her broken arm. She had just spotted Gunn when the cell phone rang that Wesley was holding. She overheard him ask Angel if he had heard from Buffy and Angel's reply that he had just dropped Buffy off at a warehouse on Sigorney. Temper getting the best of her, Dawn proceeded to wreak havoc in the waiting room. She left the hospital headed for Buffy.

Without explaining to Angel what had happened, Wesley told him he had to get back to the warehouse and help Buffy because Dawn was headed there to kill her.

"Wes, Buffy can defend herself against Dawn."

"That isn't the real Dawn. She did this." Wesley waved his arms indicating the destruction in the waiting room.

Angel started to panic. He threw Wesley his cell. "Call Buffy and warn her; her number is in contacts."

"Angel, you have to hurry."

Angel nearly collided with a group of people as he exited the waiting room. He jumped into his car and headed back to the warehouse.

Part 2

At Wolfram and Hart Lilah watched the monitor from the recording device that was planted inside Dawn. 'That cyborg is out of control. I wonder why Maggie Walsh's report said that she was functioning normally? Could it be Dawn, instead of Adam, that killed Walsh? What a mess this is. And more important than that, how do I clean it up?

'If she kills the slayer, I will have hell to pay. Literally.'

As she watched she could tell that something was wrong with Dawn. Her movements were not as smooth as they should be and her emotional reactions were all over the place, completely out of normal range, and she was getting weaker. Lilah tried to remember the last time Dawn had returned to have her power cell recharged, probably not since before she went to Sunnydale.

'What the hell was she thinking; she knows that she isn't supposed to go that long without a recharge. We should have reactivated monitoring before she left with Maggie Walsh.'

Lilah knew that the green energy of the key was fading. It had been designed to last long enough for the original Dawn to destroy Glorificus and then for her to self-destruct. The younger monks altered her original programming so that the key's energy would gradually fade leaving just a normal girl. Since it was not used to fight Glorificus, no one knew how much of the energy was left.

When Wolfram and Hart created the cyborg Dawn, they didn't know how long to expect the green energy to last, but it was clear now that it was running out and Dawn was running mostly on her backup power source since her primary power cell was long overdue for a recharge.

Lilah could only hope that both power sources ran out before Dawn got to the slayer and killed her. With Lindsey dead, the blame for another failed project would fall squarely on her shoulders.

She tried to contact Dawn who ignored her. "Dawn you have to return to home base; something is wrong. Your reactions are completely out of normal range."

"Leave ... me … alone," Dawn yelled as she stomped unsteadily down the street toward the warehouse where she knew Buffy to be. "I am not returning until I take care of the slayer once and for all."

People on the street gave her a wide berth when they saw what seemed to be an out-of-control girl that was high on something and yelling at herself. Fortunately for them, they did not want to get involved.

Part 3

Inside the warehouse Buffy knew the instant Dawn entered; the door almost flew off its hinges and Dawn stood in the doorway.

Buffy greeted her casually, "Hello, Dawn."

"Did you really think I wouldn't find you, that you could hide from me?" Dawn asked as she stalked clumsily toward Buffy.

"I wasn't hiding from you, Dawn; I was waiting for you. I just wanted to make sure that we were away from the innocent public."

"Always the slayer," Dawn said with a derisive sneer; "always looking out for everybody else. Don't you get it? Nobody gives a damn about you. Your good friends chose Faith over you. Faith! That should show you just how pathetic you really are."

Buffy ignored the digs about herself and Faith and let Dawn rant as she quietly chanted the spell given to her by Gerenea. Dawn didn't notice anything until she flew backward against the opposite wall and was trapped as bindings captured her arms and legs and held her securely to the wall.

"Do you actually think this will hold me?"

Again Buffy ignored Dawn's words as she said, "You know, you learn a lot of things when you're upstairs looking down, and one of the things that I learned was that monks lie just like everybody else."

Dawn was not impressed. "So?"

"And Dad told me the truth about you."

"What do you mean?"

"The monks found the real key to Glori's dimension and needed to hide it; they created you to house Glori's key."

"What?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Dawn. You're the key to Glori's dimension all right, but you aren't _from_ Glori's dimension as that dieing monk led me to believe. You're from right here on earth, made of circuits and scrap metal and the energy of the original key. That energy was modified specifically to fight and destroy Glorificus, to prevent her from opening the portal to her dimension."

Dawn continued the back and forth rhetoric with Buffy while she figured a way out of her predicament. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Buffy could see her stalling. 'Let her go on playing games. Now that I know what you really are, I'm ready for you. I will not let you harm anyone else. Today, I will destroy you.'

"Really? You didn't want to fulfill your destiny, did you? You wanted to live like a real girl. It was you, and not Glorificus, who killed those monks when they found out that your original programming had been altered, and you killed Maggie Walsh. Maggie was a smart woman. You knew that if she examined you, she would see how far you had advanced from Wolfram and Hart's original design.

"The monks that Glori killed were the ones who supported your desire to continue living as a human being. It was one of them, one of your friends who, with his last breath, continued your lie causing me to believe that you were indeed human and my sister and that you had no knowledge of being anything else, that you were innocent in this whole thing.

"You and I both know that you did know and there is nothing innocent about you."

"So, you were pretending all along. I always knew that you couldn't be as dumb as your friends think you are. Hunh. You're not as smart as you think you are either. Do you really think your magic can hold me? You know there is no way that you can defeat me."

"How long have you been in my house?"

"During the time that you were so occupied with Spike, Wolfram and Hart picked Dawn up from school and replaced her with me. You and your friends didn't notice a thing. I had been sitting in on Dawn's classes for weeks; you didn't even notice how much her grades had improved.

"You and your little LA friends are the only ones who know what I really am so of course, I'll have to kill all of you."

At that moment Angel burst through the door. "Buffy, you have to be careful. Dawn isn't what she pretends to be. She isn't really your sister."

Momentarily forgetting that her power sources were dangerously low, Dawn's eyes glowed bright green as she looked at Angel and as quickly as moving her eyes, Angel went flying into the opposite brick wall. He slumped to the floor unconscious.

Just as her eyes started to dim, with one last bright glow, Dawn forcefully pulled her wrists and ankles free of the bindings holding her to the wall. She stepped away from the wall and, before she could catch herself, dropped waist deep into a vat of acid beneath the fake portion of the floor.

"Nooo, what have you done?" she screamed as the acid ate away at her outer covering and started to dissolve her lower body.

"Buffyyy, help me," she pleaded in her most pitiful Dawn voice, the voice that, before, always made Buffy cave in to Dawn's wishes.

"Nice try," Buffy snarled as Dawn's upper body began to be consumed by the acid.

"I'll tell mom if you don't help meee..." was the last thing Buffy heard from the cyborg.

She ran to Angel to check on him; he was just beginning to regain consciousness. By the time he was alert and sitting up holding his head, he looked around for Dawn. "Buffy, what happened to Dawn? How did you defeat her?"

Buffy gave a sad little smirk. "With help from my father and his friend."

Angel looked confused.

"I'll fill you in later. Did you find your friends? Are they all right?"

"Yeah. Cordy has a broken arm and Gunn might have a concussion, but they will be okay. We'd better call Wes and let him know about Dawn."

In Sunnydale at the same instant that Dawn dissolved, everything in the house, that Dawn had caused to vanish, reappeared. Fortunately no one was seriously injured by the reappearing furniture.

Part 4

When Buffy and Angel arrived at the hospital where his friends were being treated, they learned that Cordy and Gunn had been admitted for overnight observation. Though both had insisted that they were fine, the doctor had insisted that they stay.

Wesley explained his conversation with Giles; the Sunnydale crew was not willing to believe what he was telling them about Dawn. They were sure that she was just being controlled by someone.

The next morning Wesley had just come from the hospital after retrieving Cordelia and Gunn when Lilah showed up at the Hyperion looking for him.

"What are you doing here, Lilah?"

By the tone of his voice Lilah could see that she was the last person that Wesley wanted to see.

"I'll make this brief. These DVDs are recordings from the monitoring device that was planted into the cyborg Dawn. They are for the slayer."

She turned to Buffy and spoke and by the look on her face, Buffy felt that her words were sincere. "Our original intent in placing the cyborg into your house was not to harm you, just to watch you and report back to us, but she eventually outgrew her programming and sought to eliminate you because she saw you as a threat to her existence. We believe that it was actually Dawn that killed Maggie Walsh to prevent her from revealing that information to us. We cannot be sure of that because her monitoring was not activated at the time."

"Thank you, Lilah, but why are you doing this?" Wesley wanted to know.

"I was responsible for the cyborg. It got away from me and people got hurt, or worse. So in essence what she did was my fault. I'm just trying to tie up some loose ends."

"Whom did she kill, Lilah?"

"Lindsey. She killed Lindsey, without a blink, right in front of me."

There were expressions of surprise and shock from those in the room.

"You said that you were "just trying to tie up some loose ends." What did you mean by that?"

She paused and looked into Wesley's eyes before speaking her last words to him. "Thank you, Wesley, for everything. Goodbye." She turned and walked out of the hotel.

Everyone looked at Wesley for his response. None came. That, and the look on his face, told them that his understanding of the meaning of Lilah's last words was the same as theirs - Lilah was being terminated by Wolfram and Hart.

Part 5

Even though she had no intentions of ever returning to her house in Sunnydale, Buffy agreed to accompany the AI team back to her house so she could help explain what happened to Dawn.

When they were all seated in the living room of the house on Revello Drive, Buffy noticed that some of the girls, along with Faith, were missing and some of those present were injured.

"What happened here? Where are the others?"

There was no reply.

"Is someone going to tell me what happened?"

No one answered until Anya spoke up and said, "Faith took some of the girls to the winery; it was a trap, a bomb. Some of them didn't make it back. Faith was badly injured; she's still upstairs recuperating."

One of the potentials that had accompanied Faith spoke up and said, "If Spike hadn't shown up when he did, none of us would have made it back."

Buffy looked at Giles who refused to look her in the eyes.

She took a long exasperated breath. There was nothing to be said that would make things better, so she proceeded to tell them the reason she was there and that was to explain everything she knew about Dawn and about the deaths of her parents.

Faith joined the group sometime during her explanations; she seemed to be completely recovered. As Buffy expected, those from Sunnydale did not want to believe what she had to say about Dawn.

"You're saying we've been living with a cyborg for months and didn't know it. This is just too much to accept."

"I maintained the Buffy Bot for months; I think would know a cyborg if I saw one."

"I find this hard to believe; I think you killed her so she couldn't tell us the truth."

Cordelia had heard enough. "What is the matter with you people? This is your friend that you're talking to. Did you see what that thing did to us? I have a broken arm; Gunn has a concussion. Do you really think a human Dawn could have done this?"

"It's okay, Cordelia. I expected this reaction from my 'friends'". There was contempt in her voice as she said the last word. She picked up the television remote and pressed a few buttons. "Watch and listen."

All heads turned to the video playing on the television. It showed Dawn in the Hyperion lobby talking to Cordelia, demanding to see Buffy, knocking Gunn out with just a look and breaking Cordelia's arm.

"What is this?" "Who recorded this?" "How do we know this is real?"

Finally losing his temper, Angel stood up and bellowed, "Will you all just shut up and watch the video!"

The DVD played through the end of Dawn's visit to the Hyperion, to the hospital and finally her search for Buffy.

It then showed Dawn stomping down the street; she seemed to be talking to herself; it showed her entering the warehouse and facing off with Buffy; Buffy quickly reciting some spell and Dawn being magically bound to a wall.

They listened to the dialogue between Buffy and Dawn, heard Dawn admit who she was, saw her throw Angel against the wall with a look, threaten to kill Buffy and the AI team, release herself and fall into the acid.

For a few tense moments there was silence in the room, then everyone started to speak at once.

"You killed Dawnie?" "How could you kill your own sister?"

Spike, who had been standing in the doorway listening, pounded his fist on the wall, getting everyone's attention. "Are you people daft? Don't you see? That wasn't Dawn. What human being can have half their body dissolved in acid and still be able to speak like that?"

Xander asked, "Then where is the real Dawn?"

"Okay everybody, listen to me carefully. I never had a sister. I pieced together this information from letters left for me by my father before he died and from information provided to me by one of his friends.

"Using the energy of Glori's key the elder monks created a being that they called Dawn to house the key; its purpose was to destroy Glorificus and to self-destruct. They also built memories in me and those close to my family to make us all think we remembered growing up with Dawn.

"That is why the people in LA don't remember her; Angel and Cordelia had left Sunnydale when the memories were built. All they know about Dawn is what we've told them over the past few years.

"Instead of sticking with the original plan, this Dawn decided it wanted to live like a real human being and some of the younger monks agreed. It killed its creators, the senior monks, and the junior monks brought it to Sunnydale, to me.

"Somehow Wolfram and Hart became aware of this being, I don't know how; they decided to give it an upgrade, to make it into a cyborg that they could control and that would be placed in my house so it could watch me. They kidnapped Dawn from school on Friday and in one weekend Wolfram and Hart created its new Dawn replacement, destroying the original Dawn in the process.

"Before placing the cyborg Dawn in my house, W&H asked Maggie Walsh to examine it to find out what was going on with it. That was the weekend that Dawn supposedly ran away from home and we couldn't find her for two days. When she returned, we were so happy to see her, none of us noticed anything out of the ordinary about her.

"The cyborg Dawn could not allow Maggie to reveal the power it had, so it killed her and let everyone think that Adam, the thing created by Project 314, did it. I bet Dawn was laughing her ass off when we killed Adam.

"I discovered by accident that Dawn still had the green energy one night when we got into an argument and her eyes started glowing green."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Willow wanted to know.

"I couldn't let any of you know what I suspected."

"Why the hell not?" An irate Xander demanded.

Undisturbed by his attitude, Buffy answered calmly, "I had no way of knowing if any of you were working with her. Besides, I had no proof, only my suspicions.

"That was about the same time that Giles and Wood were trying to kill Spike; were any of you going to listen to me?"

No one answered until Anya spoke up and asked, "Why did you leave us in the house with robot Dawn?"

"Oh you mean after all of you agreed with her that I should leave?

"You weren't in any danger as long as you didn't know what she was and as I said, I didn't know at the time. According to all of you, Dawn only attacked when Willow tried to stop her from leaving. She was just defending herself. Besides, the leader that you all chose was here; couldn't she protect you?

"I am the only one that Dawn saw as a threat, and that was only after I asked her, 'You think I don't know what you are?'

"I expected that would make her come after me."

Cordelia spoke up then and asked, "So you took the danger off them and brought it to us?"

"No. As you may recall, I did not come to you at first. I was going to handle it on my own. Then I ran into you coming out of the bank and you told me that Dawn had been to the hotel looking for me. It was then that I felt I had to warn you about her."

"But you didn't tell us everything," Wesley accused.

"Because at the time, I didn't know everything. When I learned the rest, I called Cordy's apartment to tell you, but I got no answer. That's what my message meant on your voice mail. It was not my intentions to get any of you hurt."

"We know that, Buffy," Cordelia said as she lifted her cast. "We know you wouldn't deliberately try to hurt anyone."

"Oh yeah, tell that to Xander and to those girls who died at the vineyard." Rona could not let it go.

This time Wesley had had enough. "I am sick of your mouth. We are all at war against evil. In war people get hurt and people die. So if you have nothing constructive to add to this conversation, I suggest that you either shut up or get the hell out of Buffy's house."

Rona looked at the others. When no one came to her defense, she slumped back in her chair and kept her mouth shut.

"Honestly, Buffy, how did you put up with this for so long? And in your own house? I would've kicked them out of my house long ago," Cordelia told Buffy.

Buffy just shrugged her shoulders. "I couldn't kick these girls out. Whether they want to admit it or not, here was the safest place for them to be."


	11. War Is On

Misled

Chapter 11 – War Is On

Part 1

"Angel, Faith, Spike, join me outside, please." Buffy spoke to the other three in the group that had super strength; she then turned and walked out the front door of her house fully expecting the others to follow her. Once outside she spoke again.

"One of my father's friends has given me the means to destroy the First Evil's army of Turok-Han and Bringers, but I need you guys for backup, just in case. I need you to be ready for battle, tonight, because five minutes before midnight I am opening the seal that covers the mouth of hell and I am taking this fight to the First and putting an end to its threat to us once and for all.

"If any of you do not trust me enough or do not want to back me up, say so now." She looked each one in the eyes as she spoke and the replies that she got were exactly what she needed to hear.

"You know I'm with you, love; I'll back your play, whatever it is."

"Me too, slayer. Count me in."

"I'm with you too, B." Faith thought for a moment and then asked, "What about some of the others, can't some of them help?"

Without missing a beat, Buffy said, "No. They'll just be in the way.

"Caleb has something that belongs to me. I'm going to see what it is."

"You still believe he's hiding something at the vineyard?"

"I know he is. It's mine and I'm going to get it."

"Not without me you're not," Angel spoke up.

"A-Angel ..."

"Not without me, Buffy," Angel repeated himself more firmly this time.

"Okay, then, lets go."

Just as Buffy and Angel were about to leave, Faith asked, "What about the others? What do we tell them?"

"Nothing for now. I'll speak to them when I get back."

Part 2

Forty-five minutes later Buffy and Angel were back and Buffy was carrying her shiny new scythe.

When they walked into the house, everyone noticed the weapon. "So," Giles asked, "is that what they were hiding at the vineyard?"

"Yeah. I think they were hiding it because they knew it was the only thing that would kill Caleb. I don't know everything it does, but I do know that it slices, dices and makes julienne preacher."

Willow realized what she meant. "Well all right. It's a powerful weapon, Buffy. I can feel the pull of its power from here."

"Don't touch it, Will," Buffy cautioned. "As I said, I don't know everything it does. I know that it's powerful, it had Caleb backing up like he was afraid of it; that's how I knew I could use it to kill him. It's very possible that its power could be addictive."

"Before you went to face Caleb, what were you guys talking about that the rest of us weren't involved in?" Xander wanted to know.

For a room that was noisy and filled with chatter a moment ago, it quickly became so quiet one could hear a pin drop as everyone waited for Buffy to reply to Xander's question.

"I am opening the seal tonight. I am facing the First's army head on and I didn't involve the rest of you in the discussion because you won't be involved in the fight. Period."

If Buffy expected an uproar, the group did not disappoint.

"WHAT?" "You can't be serious." "Buffy, are you sure you want to try this alone? We can help." "Let her go ahead and get herself killed; the sooner she's out of the way, the closer I'll be to becoming the next slayer."

Buffy waited for the noise to die down before she spoke.

"The decision was mine alone and it wasn't open for discussion. Or vote." There was venom in her voice when she spoke. "I am very serious and I won't be trying this alone; the three people that I asked outside will be joining me. While I was in LA, I was given the means to destroy the First's army. I asked the others along for backup in case I need it."

Wesley spoke softly. "I understand why you included the them; they all have superior strength, but why didn't you include Gunn and me and some of the others?"

"Gunn has a concussion; I didn't want to risk any further injury to him. And you will be needed here. It is obvious that Giles cannot handle these potential slayers by himself; besides there isn't a decent fighter among them."

She then turned to Kennedy and said, "Whether or not I am 'out of the way' has no bearing on your becoming a slayer. The slayer line runs through Faith, not through me. Besides, based on what I've seen, you won't last a week on your own."

She realized that her statement to Kennedy was a bit harsh, but she smirked inwardly and thought, 'She deserved it after that crack about my being out of the way.'

Part 3

The two slayers and the two vampires met in Buffy's old room to discuss her plan for their confrontation with the First Evil's army.

The plan seemed too simple to be true.

"Gerenea, one of my father's friends, gave me a spell to use that will destroy anything associated with the First Evil, the Turok-Han, the bringers and anybody else that has willingly chosen to be evil. She insisted that I memorize it and gave me the power to perform it before I went to face Dawn. I want to make sure we all know the plan for tonight.

"The four of us will open the seal at 11:55, Angel and Spike will then go back above ground and will stop anyone or anything from entering the school. Gerenea said that the spell will specifically target any being associated with the First Evil, so you two should be okay. I don't want you downstairs though, I just don't want to take any chances.

"Faith, this is where you come in. The spell will take me about a minute; it is during this time that you and I will be most vulnerable, because as soon as the Turoks hear me chanting, they will try to stop me. They will be down in a large crater and will start climbing immediately. Gerenea let me see them and there are hundreds of them. Do not let their numbers frighten you; just concentrate on the ones coming out of the top of that crater."

"I'll be ready, B; you can count on it."

Buffy gave her a quick little smile. "I know.

"When it works, you should see a very bright light and hear a loud sound like thunder coming from inside the school. This thing is supposed to destroy everything evil that it touches.

"We need to verify that all of the evil beings have been destroyed. Either Faith and I can do that and then join you two outside or we can come upstairs as soon as I finish the spell, then when the light fades, we can all go back in to see the results."

"I say we go with option two. I need to know that you are all right," Angel said reaching for her hand. "When I see that light flash, I want to hear you coming up those stairs. If I don't, I'm coming down."

Spike and Faith agreed.

"Okay, we go with option two. As soon as the last word of the spell is out of my mouth, we head back up the stairs."

"We will be positioned at the top of the stairs to make sure that nothing comes down," Angel insisted.

Buffy started to protest but she knew it would be useless, so she nodded in agreement. "If everything goes as Gerenea said it would, we won't have to do any fighting, but bring weapons, just in case."

After all had agreed on the plan, Buffy told Faith and Spike that they would pick them up at eleven thirty; she and Angel then left her house and he headed the car toward the mansion.

Part 4

"Let's go to your old apartment instead of the mansion," Buffy told Angel. "I need to relax for a couple of hours before we go to face the First; right now I am wound too tight to be as effective as I need to be to perform Gerenea's spell correctly."

"I haven't been back to the apartment since I left Sunnydale. It will not be in any condition for you to relax."

"It's fine. I still have the key that you gave me. I go there sometimes when I need to be alone or when I'm missing you so much I can't stand it anymore. It's probably cleaner than my house is right now."

Angel hardly recognized his apartment; Buffy had added additional lighting and color, carpeting and curtains and feminine touches here and there. It looked like a home instead of a rarely used apartment.

"I hope you don't mind. I was planning to move into here after the fight with the First was over. I knew that I wouldn't be able to stand it in that house much longer; I had to get out."

Angel took her in his arms. "What you've done with this apartment is amazing. I'm happy that you felt comfortable enough to stay here. Where did you get the money for this? I know it must have been difficult after your mother died."

"Everything except the carpeting came from the mansion. Angel, most of those rooms are beautifully furnished. Did you ever remove any of the dust covers and check out the furniture?"

"No. I toured the place when I first move in, but after that I confined myself to the first floor."

"We'll talk about it later; right now I need to crash."

Angel took the scythe from her, placed it under the edge of the bed and folded back the bed covering; he then picked Buffy up and carried her to the bed. He removed her shoes and socks, shirt and jeans and covered her with the comforter that was on the bed. "Sleep," he told her; "I'll wake you just before it's time for us to leave."

"Angel, would you just hold me until I fall asleep?"

Angel's heart swelled with joy at Buffy's request. He removed his jacket and shoes and got on the bed with her; he gathered her in his arms and let her get comfortable. He kissed her on the top of her head and said, "Sleep, love; I'll wake you when it's time."

Buffy fell asleep almost immediately.

Part 5

At exactly eleven-thirty Angel pulled his car up to the curb in front of Buffy's house; Faith and Spike were already sitting on the steps fully armed and waiting for them. They got into the car and Angel pulled off.

Buffy turned around so that she was facing the two passengers in the back seat. "Are you ready for this?"

"Ready." "Ready!" came the replies.

They rode the rest of the way in silence.

Angel parked the car in front of the school. Before they got out, Buffy asked, "Does anyone feel vampires, demons or anything evil within the vicinity of the school?"

No one did. All they felt was a concentration of evil within the school itself.

The four got out of the car and approached the school. They were surprised to find the doors unlocked, but no one said anything. Each one of them was on high alert, expecting an attack at any moment. None came so they proceeded to open the seal that lead to the mouth of hell.

"Here, take this," Buffy said, handing the scythe to Faith who passed her sword to Spike.

Once that was done Buffy signaled for the vampires to return to the upstairs as she and Faith positioned themselves and she closed her eyes and started to chant. Seeing the huge cavern and the volume of Turok-Han, Angel and Spike didn't move.

This time Faith signaled for them to leave, but they stood their ground as Buffy continued to chant. Half a dozen of the ancient vampires reached the top of the cavern before Buffy finished, but Faith, Angel and Spike were ready for them. At least a dozen others were near the top as the chant ended and a light as bright as the noon-day sun surrounded them and a thunderous roar filled the cavern.

"Let's get out of here," Faith yelled and Buffy turned to see Angel and Spike nearby.

"Move," she yelled as the four of them headed up the stairs.

Once they were outside Angel and Spike sat down on the ground.

"What is the matter with you? Why didn't you stick to the plan? What did that spell do to you?" Buffy was so scared that they had been harmed.

"B, calm down," Faith told her; "they're trying to breathe."

"WHAT?"

"Bugger that," Spike said gasping for breath.

When they were breathing normally, Angel stood up. "It looks like your friend's spell worked in ways you didn't expect. It killed all of the evil it touched, including the demons within Spike and me."

Buffy and Faith stood there with their mouths open not knowing what to say until Buffy launched herself at Angel.

"Good thing we still have our strength," Spike told Faith, "otherwise she would've killed him."

The other couple didn't respond; they were too busy kissing.

When it looked like they weren't going to stop any time soon, Faith tapped Buffy on the shoulder and asked, "Can you two come up for air long enough for us to verify that the spell killed everything downstairs?"

"Oh," Buffy turned with an unrepentant grin on her face, "okay."

When the four of them reached the basement of the high school, what they found was not what they expected. Not only were all of the vampires gone, so was the seal.

Spike was the first to speak. "I guess this means that this hellmouth is closed for good."

"I guess Sunnydale can now be the peaceful little town it was meant to be," was Faith's assessment.

"Yeah, a nice peaceful little town where couples get married and raise a big family without concerns about vampires and demons coming after them," Angel said smiling and looking into Buffy's eyes as he leaned in to give her another kiss.

"Aww boy, here we go again." Spike groaned. "Will you two come on? Let's get back to the house. I'm starving."

Part 6

Back at the Summers' house everyone was still awake, waiting for news of the confrontation with the First.

"Was that thunder," Willow asked of no one in particular; "was it suppose to rain tonight?"

Giles pulled back the draperies and looked out. "The night sky is completely clear and full of stars and it doesn't smell like rain is near."

"Maybe that sound came from the high school," Anya offered; "maybe that's Buffy's spell working."

"That would have to be some spell." This came from Willow.

"I just hope they're all alright." Cordelia's concern showed in her voice.

Half an hour after the spell was completed, Angel again pulled his 1968 Plymouth GTX up in front of the Summers' house.

A/N: I don't know for sure if that is the correct make and model of Angel's car.

"They're here," Cordelia yelled excitedly as she rushed to open the door.

Four humans entered the house and were bombarded with questions before they could say anything.

Completely ignoring everyone in the house, Spike proceeded to the kitchen looking for food.

"We'll explain after we get these guys some food," Faith told them as she followed Spike.

"The spell worked," was all Buffy said as she and Angel followed the others into the kitchen.

"Food?" Cordelia yelled as she headed for the kitchen. "Why do they need food?"

Angel looked over his shoulder with a little smirk and followed Buffy.

Understanding what that meant, Wesley, as well as a few of the others headed for the kitchen.

By this time Angel and Spike were sitting at the kitchen table and Buffy and Faith were making sandwiches while water boiled for tea.

"The dead boys are now human?" Xander asked.

"DUH!" Cordy answered with a frown as she shook her head and lifted her eyes toward the ceiling.

Rapid fire questions really came then.

Buffy repeated herself. "The spell worked. And like Faith told you, we'll explain everything after we get these guys some food."

By the time everyone was back in the living room, the mood in the house had changed considerably. After the explanations were done and all questions answered, Giles spoke up. "That was quite a risk that the two of you took; you didn't know what that spell would do to you."

"No, we didn't," Angel told Giles, "but there was no way I was letting Buffy and Faith face that mob alone."

"Neither was I," Spike chimed in, "besides I couldn't let my sire be the only martyr."

"Martyr, nothing," Faith told him; "you were as scared as the rest of us."

They stayed up for another hour or so until little by little the group thinned out as people left to go to bed, especially the younger potentials.

Giles asked for Wesley's help in finding homes and watchers for the remaining potential slayers. Wesley agreed.

Cordelia turned to Gunn and said, "I guess that means we're out of a job."

Before Gunn could reply, Angel asked, "Why is that? Unless you guys don't want to live in Sunnydale, because I plan to relocate and open AI here."

Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn looked at each other and agreed; "We're in." Wesley spoke for the three of them.

By now Buffy was asleep in Angel's lap while Faith and Spike had unknowingly fallen asleep leaning against each other.

"I'm taking Buffy home to put her to bed. Wes, Cordy, Gunn, there's room for you as well," Angel told them as he rose to leave.

"What about those two?" Xander asked looking at Spike and Faith.

"Just throw a blanket over them," Willow told him; "they'll be fine."

When Wesley noticed that they were headed away from the mansion, he asked Angel, "Aren't we staying at the mansion tonight?"

"No we're staying at Buffy's apartment."

Cordelia was confused. "Buffy has an apartment?"

"Actually, it's my old apartment, but I'm sure she won't mind, there is enough room for all of us. Speaking of room, there are other apartments in the building, if you guys are interested."

"How do you know that they're available?"

"It's my building."

"You own an apartment building?" Cordelia could see dollar signs in front of her eyes.

Wesley touched her hand and shook his head. Cordy huffed, but didn't say another word.

Part 7

The next day everyone slept late; Buffy slept later than anyone else. She awoke to the smell of food and found Angel in the kitchen. The rest of the AI team was exploring the apartment building deciding on how they wanted their boss to redecorate it for them.

Buffy and Angel moved into his/her apartment until renovation of the first two floors of the mansion was completed. They then got married and moved into the mansion and planned to start a family as soon as the renovation was complete.

Spike and Faith became a couple, big surprise there, and they moved in together into the apartment that Buffy and Angel vacated.

Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn continued working for Angel at the new Angel Investigations. Cordelia no longer got visions, something she was quite happy about.

When Kennedy was placed with a watcher near her home, she asked Willow to join her. Willow accepted and completed her college education on the east coast.

Their second attempt at getting married was successful for Xander and Anya. Xander continued working in construction; Anya continued at the Magic Shop until their first child was born.

Giles and Wesley placed the potentials as near their home towns as possible. Rona was the only potential that had not been placed with a watcher and so Giles and Wesley became her joint watchers by default. After getting to know her, Gunn sort of adopted her as his baby sister because she reminded him so much of his sister Alonna. With this arrangement, Rona blossomed. She was diligent and respectful and readily followed orders from her watchers. With Buffy and Faith, Angel and Spike around, she always had excellent sparring partners and she was a good slayer once she was called.

Members of the Scooby gang were never able to return to the level of friendship and trust that they once shared; however, they do share news of major life events via e-mail.

The end.


End file.
